Dry Skin and losing quills-help please!

Hi everyone,

I have looked at other posts and just wanted to get some reassurances from more experienced hedgehog owners.

Over the last couple of weeks my gorgeous little Hattie (aged 2 1/2) has had very dry skin (it is basically very very flaky) and she has been losing easily 10-15 quills a day over the past week especially.

She seems very alert,has a wet nose and bright eyes is eating well, her droppings are normal and she seems to have new quills coming through.

I have tried giving her a bath with a few drops of baby oil in so as to try and not dry her skin out anymore. Then at the weekend, I dropped a few drops of olive oil on her skin to try and help the dryness.

This didn't seem to make any long term difference and although there are no signs of mites and the quills still have the rootball on the end of them, I have started some treatment with Xeno 50s (as suggested on another post) just in case I've missed something and she does have mites.

She doesn't seem to have any bald patches even with the high quill loss which is good and more quills are coming through but I wonder if anyone has any other suggestions as to why this is or if it's normal?

Just one other thing (sorry for the long winded post!), I do have central heating so I have turned that down slightly and put a glass of water near the radiator to try and help the humidity but don't know yet as to whether it'll make a difference.

So....is this normal at this time of year or am I missing something?

Thank you so much for any help and advice you can give me.

Jenx

Hi

I am a new hedgehog owner but I had the exact same problem with my Captain. He had extremely flaky skin and was quilling, I was worried it was mites as well but his quills had the ball on the end and there was no evidence of mites when i brushed him over a dark surface - which suggested that it almost certainly wasn't, and after some advise from others on the forum I am now pretty sure it was due to the cold weather and central heating coz it has been a harsh winter. I was advised to try olive oil - which i put on between his shoulder blades twice a week and i gave him a bath with some vit e in it a couple of weeks ago, this actually worked wonders for him and although his skin is still a bit dry it is nowhere near as bad as it was. I think other things you could try are flaxseed oil or maybe aveeno oil?

hope this has been a little help and your little one gets better soon

I think you are doing everything right - continue with the xeno to complete the course to rule that out and maybe try adding a few drops of flaxseed oil onto her food once or twice a week - it will take some time for the quill loss to slow down also even if the treatment is working so dont panic too much at this point because shes not getting bald patches which is good!